Yaaaaayyy! I'm back! Sorry it took so long. I just had a burst of brilliance a couple days ago and got to writing. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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The young couple walked into the clinic hand in hand. The wife grinned as she rubbed her swollen stomach, containing yet another child of the two lovebirds. The husband signed them in as she took a seat in the waiting room. The hard plastic chair creaked as she slowly set herself in it. She sighed. "Five more months of this." She muttered to herself.

The husband walked back over with the paperwork. He rubbed his wife's stomach affectionately before filling each paper out with the needed information. He had gotten to the last sheet when he really started to get antsy. Each child before hand had made him this excited but for some reason he had a feeling this time was going to be different. He had a gut feeling this child was going to be different. He could feel it! "What's your maiden name, again?" he asked as he tapped the pen on his lower lip in innocent though.

His wife rolled her eyes as she went through her breathings and soothingly rubbed her growing baby bump. "For the amount of times we've gone through this, you know my maiden name."

He grinned cheekily as he turned back to the paperwork, filling in the blank space with the blue pen. "Middle name?" he asked a tad to innocently.

She gave him the I'm-having-your-damned-children don't-mess-with-me look. He grinned wider as he scribbled the name on the pulverized tree. "Right. Lilith." He muttered, touching pen to paper.

"How I've never had a miscarriage from all the stress you put me through, I'll never know." She muttered to herself, rolling her eyes yet again. His chest rumbled as he chuckled at the love of his life.

"There. All done." The husband stood and returned the paperwork and clipboard to the clinic secretary. When he returned, he grasped his wife's hand in his.

She smiled sweetly up at him. His warm brown eyes sparkled down at hers as he leaned down and gently kissed her lips. She hummed happily as he pulled away. "So, do you want a girl or a boy this time?"

He grinned, replacing his hand with his other and wrapping the previous one around her shoulders, pulling her closer to his body. "Well, it would be nice to have a boy but I think I want a little princess this time." He said with all seriousness, looking her in the eyes.

Even though she was busy fiddling with the strap of her purse, she couldn't help but give a small smile at his words. At that moment the door to the back was opened and the couples name was called. They turned and grinned at each other. "It's time." The man said as he helped his wife to her feet.

She grinned back at him. "I know." They made their way back to the room and went to their positions. They had been through this enough times to know where to be when the doctor comes in. The husband sat on the chair and gripped his wife's hand as she sat on the examination table. He gave her a reassuring squeeze before the doctor stepped through the threshold of the room. She smiled at her usual pair. She sees them every two years. "Another one?" she asked, poking fun at the fact that they bred like rabbits.

The wife smiled a toothy grin as her longtime friend sat down. "Oh, shut up, Amy, I could say the same for you. You should be happy you get to see all my children before they're even born. You get to see them before my parents do."

Her childhood friend grinned up at her, rubbing her own bump affectionately under her cotton blouse. "Yeah. Too bad for you. You get to wait until I get back from my appointments to know mine."

The husband continued to hold his wife's hand, rubbing soothing circles on the backs of them. "And what about you? What is it this time?"

Amy grinned at her friend. "It's a boy this time. Oh, you should've seen Ron's face when we saw the ultrasound." She gushed, laying her friend on her back and lifting her shirt. "His eyes were as big as baseballs, I thought he would pass out from euphoria and have to have Julia call one of the nurses to check for a concussion." She gave a throaty laugh as she squeezed the cold gel onto the woman's stomach.

The couple laughed too. "Geez, if he wanted a boy so bad, I'd give him one of mine. I just want a princess to spoil rotten." Amy grinned at the man's teasing as she started to feel around for the baby.

His wife smacked his arm. "You are not selling any of our sons. And you are not spoiling any girl of ours."

He opened his mouth to say something else when the wife held her arm up again; ready to give another good smack to the idiotic man she loved. "If you two lovebirds are content I think you might want to see your next kid." Amy butted in before blood could be shed. The couple snapped their heads to the screen in unison.

The sound of a muffled heartbeat could be heard from the monitor. The woman never knew if it was hers or the babies but she never cared. Her eyes watered at the sight on the screen.

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"Gaaahhhhhh!" she let out a scream that would make any scary movie actress turn green with jealousy. Her chest heaved as the pains of the birth radiated throughout her body.

The husband stood right next to her side even as she cut off the circulation to his wrist. "Don't stop! You're almost there! You can do it, baby!" his words of encouragement were the only thing getting to her through the haze of pain in her brain.

She pushed again with everything in her, just so she could get this thing out of her already! "That's it! Keep pushing, it's almost out!" she pushed again with all her might. The contractions and labor came out of nowhere that morning. It was a surprise to the whole family. The rest of the couple's children were in the waiting room as their mother was going through her labor without any medicine. That's right, no morphine, no epidural, nothing.

"One more." the doctor said as she pushed one last time and then collapsed back on the raised bed. Her forehead was matted with sweat; her blonde bangs clinging to the skin there. The soft, curdled cry was the thing that caused her heart to wrench every time one of her children came into this world. She gasped as the doctor gingerly placed her new infant on her bosom. "Congratulations. It's a healthy baby girl." The doctor said softly as the child's mother wiped off its goop-covered face with the blanket she was wrapped in.

"Shhh…" she cooed to calm its feeble cries. She smiled as the goop was cleared from it's eyes and her mother could cry as she looked at the eyes her mother had had and the matted black hair on her head that also belonged to her mother.

"Vanessa." Her husband's gentle voice brought her out of her stupor. He smiled down at her and leaned forward to kiss his wife's forehead. She smiled up at him through her tears of joy as he sat on the side of the bed. He caressed the cheek of his "princess", as he called her. "She looks just like your mother." He looked into his wife's eyes. "What do you want to call her?"

She smiled as the girl stirred in her mother's arms, causing her to smile. "Raven, after my mother. She'll be Raven Vanessa Miller."

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The couples name was Mark and Vanessa Miller. They were the proud parents of four boys and finally, after years of trying for one, they were rewarded with a beautiful baby girl that neither of them would have ever thought to have disappeared that day in Italy. They had trusted their son to watch his little sister. They trusted her to be careful but even with that trust they still blamed themselves. If they had just made her stay home and not leave until she was eighteen she might still be with them.

Unfortunately they both knew the fates had a plan and no matter how much you try to run from the inevitable, you can't escape fate. It was the inevitable after all. So, as they walked into the church four months after her disappearance in Volterra they had no conception that their own daughter sat in the back row, in the aisle seat. It wasn't a funeral per say, Vanessa would never have the heart to "bury" her youngest child before her own time was up.

Maybe that's the reason that she eyed the mysterious girl sitting in the back, far away from the mourners in the church that afternoon. The young girl was dressed respectfully in a conservative dress that was still young with black pumps and a forty's-style veil over her face. You could still see her facial features but she had her head down, staring at the bible on her lap, so Vanessa couldn't say for sure what about the girl caught her attention. Her brown curls hung over the side of her face but the girl could still see the couple as they walked arm in arm down the center aisle.

The girl's heart wrenched as she watched Vanessa's head turn, her blonde curls cascading over her black clad shoulders, her warm brown eyes swollen and ringed with red. She sat in the front row, next to her oldest son, John. John had his arm around the auburn haired woman, known as Natasha, who they recently found out was with child along with Mia. There had been celebration among the whole family one all sides but the news of Raven had silenced any joy in any of the families, Mia's and Natasha's included. Even if they were not of flesh and blood the families had been close and the loss of one was a bomb on all.

It had been four months since the disappearance of Raven. After the first month passed, hope in finding her lessoned but was still there. By the end of the second month, hope was a mere kindled flame. But by the end of the third, that flame had been extinguished altogether. Even in the hearts of her mother and father, they had stopped looking, as Raven would have wanted. After Natasha, Nolen sat with Mia and Randy and Tyler followed, each brother in their best black suit with a purple, silk pocket square for their dear departed sister. Each also held a purple lily in one hand as they sat in silence.

The girl in the back was surprised to see so many people in the church. Every row, save the last two on either side, was filled completely with people. The girl had to wrack her brain but she recognized each face sitting in the seats as they walked in, each holding a purple lily as well. The girl on the other hand had bypassed Mark's mother, who had been handing them to each guest, as she walked in.

The ceremony proceeded once everyone was seated. It went by surprisingly smoothly. As each brother walked up to the podium, they placed the lily on the table in front of the enlarged photo of her last school photo. Each one took turns saying something about Raven. Each one teared up at least a little and when it was John's turn, the strong older brother, he was the only one who choked in the middle of his speech. He did not have the chance to finish it before he excused himself and walked into the hallway where he crouched on the ground and silently sobbed. Natasha immediately ran after him, rubbing soothing circles on his back as he cried.

As for her parents, Vanessa and Mark took turns being strong and being vulnerable. When Vanessa cried, Mark did not shed a tear. When Mark cried, Vanessa rubbed his shoulders to attempt to calm him.

By the end of the ceremony every person had placed a purple lily in front of her last photo, her last smile to all who knew and loved her. As the people exited the church they said their condolences to the family. As the last of the drifters, who had stayed and shared stories of the poor youth, left, the girl still sat in her spot, staring at the photo at the front of the room. She closed her dark brown eyes and took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She uncrossed her legs as she opened her eyes and stood. She looked behind her, at the entrance, as the last straggler said their condolence.

The family hadn't noticed she was still there and walked outside. The girl walked out as well; they all stood at the bottom of the steps as chilly autumn breeze rolled through. The whole service had lasted four hours. The sun had changed the bright blue sky to be rimmed with orange and pink as the sun began to set.

Each family member had a face stricken with depression as the girl's driver started for the front of the church to pick her up. "She loved you, you know?" she spoke in perfect English as her thick Russian accent made an appearance.

Vanessa jerked her head in the girl's direction. "E-excuse me?" She had been crying as they walked out of the church. Her voice was weak and her hand shook as it held the tissue to her face to dry her tears.

The girl smiled gently to the older woman, her brown eyes shining in the sunset. "She loved you very much. You may have fought with each other but she still loved you. You could see it when she spoke about any of you. You each had a special place in her heart even if she didn't always show it." At that moment the girl's driver stepped out of the Mercedes CLS after it came to a stop. The driver walked around the side of the car and opened her door for her. The girl walked to the open door and placed her hand on the top of the frame and turned to the mother. "No matter what you may think of your choice in letting her go, you're a great mother and she loved you to no end." Her eyes lifted to every person standing there and smirked a little. "She loved all of you and will never forget you."

And with that the girl climbed in the back of the Mercedes and her driver shut the door before any of them could say anything else. The dark tinted windows disrupted the view of the family and the girl as the driver pulled out of the church's parking lot and onto the road. The girl let out a heavy sigh as she pulled off her wig, her fringed black hair caressing the tops of her shoulders as it cascaded out. She tossed the wig next to her on the black leather interior as she ran her hands through her silk locks. She pulled a mirror out of the bag on the floor and removed her contacts and placed them in the appropriate container, so her sapphire orbs shone a brilliant blue back at her.

"Where to now, princess?" the driver asked as he gazed at her in the rearview mirror.

She sighed again and leaned against her fist as she stared out the window. She closed her eyes, trying to get the last memory of her family to stay there. "Just take me to the airport, Corin." She said, her accent now extinct.

He nodded and turned his attention back to the road. She sighed again as they set off to the airport. When Corin pulled into the private airfield it was nearly nighttime. He stopped the car in front of a G6 jet. Corin came around and helped Raven out of the car. He gathered all her things, including her discarded wig and suitcases in the trunk as she carried her bag to the plane. A boy stepped out of the interior of the plane and stood at the top of the steps as she climbed them, holding the railing as to not lose her balance in the heels. She glanced at him once she was at the top. He gave her a melancholy smile as she nodded back.

He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her into the plane and sat her down. She sighed again as Alec took his seat across from her. "So, how did it go?" he asked her casually but his crimson eyes held caution, looking for any sign that she would collapse and her emotions would run rampant.

She sighed again as he reached over and took her hand in his cold one. He rubbed soothing circles on the back of her hand as she explained the memorial to him in full detail as the jet took off. She sighed once again as she finished. She had been doing that a lot lately. "I've never seen them so sad." She said weakly as the tears finally ran down her cheeks.

Alec reached over and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb. They had become very close over the past four months that they had been together at the castle. Although their relationship did not reach past the friend zone right now, they had each been caught by the other sneaking glances at them and when they were caught by the other they would just both smile and have a silent, personal laugh between each other.

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Sooooooooooo? How'd you like it?

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Love you all,

Katelyn Goode